Concord's Emerson Hospital to open urgent care centers

Friday

Dec 30, 2016 at 9:38 AMMar 31, 2017 at 2:12 PM

The Issue: More people are visiting urgent care centers.The Impact: Emerson Hospital will be opening three urgent care centers in the coming months. Benefits include lower co-pays, and shorter wait times.

Henry Schwan hschwan@wickedlocal.com @henrycojo

It appears that Emerson Hospital is catching the urgent care wave.

The Concord hospital is planning to open three urgent care centers, with the first coming on board in Hudson in late January 2017.

“Urgent care is the next evolution in the health care system today,” Emerson Hospital President and Chief Executive Officer Christine Schuster said.

According to Schuster, the time is right for Emerson to invest in urgent care as more patients demand quality care, at an affordable price. They also want to avoid the notorious waiting times in emergency rooms, which can drag on for hours.

Emerson’s three urgent care centers will be located in retail centers – Shops at Highland Commons in Hudson, The Point in Littleton, and The Shoppes at Maynard Crossing in Maynard - and provide care for minor illnesses and injuries, including sore throats, cuts, stitches, ear and eye infections, simple fractures, flu symptoms, minor burns, animal bites, rashes and allergic reactions.

Schuster said a detailed analysis helped Emerson pinpoint the three communities, and she cited Littleton as a community ripe for urgent care, because of its shortage of physician practices.

The Littleton location is scheduled to open in late spring 2017, and Schuster said the Maynard location should open in the next 18 to 24 months, as Emerson continues to work with Maynard officials on permitting, and other issues, to determine when construction can start.

Retail locations were targeted, according to Schuster, because they’re a destination point for local residents, and the centers will initially be staffed with one board certified physician, and a support staff of two to three employees.

Schuster said staffing levels could increase, depending on patient volume, and the centers will open seven days a week: 8 a.m. to 8 p.m., Monday through Friday; 9 a.m. to 5 p.m., Saturday and Sunday.

Benefits include no appointments necessary, short, to no, wait times and lower co-payments, compared to emergency room visits.

Dr. David Gilchrist, vice president of the Massachusetts Academy of Family Physicians, said there’s a need for urgent care, but not at the expense of going to primary care physicians for ongoing preventive care.

“We don’t believe urgent care is a substitution for Primary Care,” Schuster said, and she stated Emerson’s urgent care centers will ask patients if they have a primary care physician, and if they don’t, one will be recommended from Emerson’s approved list of primary care doctors.

Trump, the Affordable Care Act and its impact on urgent care

President-elect Donald Trump has softened on some of his campaign statements that he would scrap the Affordable Care Act, but the jury is still out on what effects a Trump administration will have on the urgent care bottom line.

The act's elimination could leave millions without insurance, unable to pay their health care bills, including those generated at urgent care centers.

Schuster said even with the uncertainty of the Affordable Care Act, Emerson is committed to investing in urgent care, because it’s an important component for meeting the health care needs of the 23 communities Emerson serves.

When presented with patients that don’t have insurance, Schuster said urgent care staff would help them establish a payment plan, or assist them with completing an application for Medicaid.

Double-edged sword

Urgent care can also act as a double-edged sword. While it increases access to health care, it potentially takes patients away from emergency room visits, which generate higher bills, and more revenue, for hospitals.

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